The Grid is falling!  The Grid is falling!

• The Alberta Government wants to build high-voltage transmission lines, and last fall passed Bill 50, in order to have the authority to do so without public debate. The line between Calgary and Edmonton alone is estimated to cost $3 billion, and a total of five new lines across the Province come to a total of $12 - $20 billion, to be paid by ratepayers and taxpayers.
• Enmax Power, Calgary City Council, the U of C School of Public Policy, the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association, and the Independent Power Consumers Association of Alberta have said the lines are not needed and are, in fact, a “massive overbuild”.
• These lines will lend themselves very well to carrying power from large power plants (whether coal-fired or nuclear) and to exporting power to the U.S., profiting a select few companies.
• How far would $20 billion go in developing the grid of the future; a stable, efficient, decentralized smart grid which would nicely incorporate renewables? The Pembina Institute, Enmax, and WADE Canada, an industry association and chapter of the World Alliance for Decentralized Energy, say we can make robust and efficient upgrades far more cheaply than has been proposed. Consumption at or close to the point of generation reduces load on the grid.

Germany is the world leader in renewable power, and China is making huge investments to catch up. Here in Canada, Ontario has created North America's boldest feed-in tariff as part of a comprehensive Green Energy Act designed to create tens of thousands of jobs while weaning their Province off of coal and nuclear power.
And just what is a Feed-In Tariff?

So where do we stand in Alberta? Check out the energy and ideas percolating around our own Province in Hey, Alberta!

"BE IT RESOLVED that the Mayor’s Office write a letter to the Provincial Government encouraging them to initiate A Renewable Power Expert Panel and a subsequent Renewable Power Consultation with Albertans."

This motion was moved June 1, 2009 by Mayor Bob Tarleck and Alderman Margaret Simmons at a meeting of the Lethbridge City Council, and carried. Since then, Leduc County Council, the MD of Northern Lights, the Towns of Peace River, Vulcan, Didsbury, High Prairie, St. Paul, and Rocky Mountain House, and the Cities of Grande Prairie, Red Deer, and Edmonton have sent letters either to Premier Ed Stelmach or else to the Minister of Energy in a growing chorus calling for a serious assessment of our renewable power potential.

In 2008, renewable power attracted more new investment worldwide than coal, large gas-fired plants, and nuclear combined. Per capita, the U.S. is spending 14X more per capita in renewables than we are here in Canada. Meanwhile, in Alberta we have:

• more sun than Germany, where they supply 15% of the nation's power with renewables, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs;

• higher wind speeds than Ontario, where their new Green Energy Act is rapidly accelerating renewable installations and setting a policy benchmark for North America;

• world-class drillers who could be drilling to explore our deep geothermal potential;

• and huge numbers of cattle supplying methane we could capture and burn to generate electricity (this is already being done by HighMark Renewables, near Vegreville).

In addition, we have hundreds of companies which could use cogeneration at commercial or industrial sites, capturing waste heat to spin a turbine and generate power to be used on-site, or to sell out onto a robust, stable, efficient, decentralized power grid; the same kind of power grid that very nicely incorporates renewable power. This is not, however, the same as the expensive, overbuilt, export-ready transmission grid envisioned by Bill 50, which would in fact lend itself to shepherding power from large central power plants, whether coal or nuclear-fired.

CAUSE heartily applauds these Cities and Towns, and the County of Leduc, for speaking out in this time when new directions are possible, new visions are attainable, and new leadership is called for.

Citizens in Sacromento, California voted 20 years ago to shut down Rancho Seco, a nuclear reactor operated by the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), causing the utility to fairly suddenly lose 1000 MW of generation. SMUD responded by investing first in efficiency, then in distributed generation using cogeneration and renewables. Price projections, had the nuclear plant continued operating, showed an 80% increase in power rates, prompting companies to threaten they would be pulling up stakes. Instead rates stayed level for a decade, keeping jobs in the area and creating 880 new ones. And SMUD was able to pay off a pre-existing debt.